Novodevichy Convent, also known as Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery (Russian: Новоде́вичий монасты́рь, Богоро́дице-Смоле́нский монасты́рь), is probably the best-known cloister of Moscow. Its name, sometimes translated as the New Maidens' Monastery, was devised to differ from an ancient maidens' convent within the Moscow Kremlin. Unlike other Moscow cloisters, it has remained virtually intact since the 17th century. In 2004, it was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Like other Moscow monasteries (notably the Danilov and the Donskoy) the New Maidens' Monastery was coveted by the Russian nobility as a place of burial. Sergey Solovyov and Alexei Brusilov are only two of the many prominent Muscovites buried within convent walls. The Napoleonic hero Denis Davydov is also buried in the grounds. In 1898, the so-called Novodevichy Cemetery was opened without monastery walls. Anton Chekhov was one of the first notables to be interred at the new necropolis, and Nikolai Gogol was later reburied there too. During the Soviet epoch, it was turned into the most high-profile cemetery in the Soviet Union, with the likes of Peter Kropotkin, Nikita Khrushchev, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Konstantin Stanislavski, Boris Yeltsin, and Mstislav Rostropovich being interred there.

A new report from the Federation Security Council (SCRF) on Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov’s recent private visit with President Barack Obama at the White House, in Washington D.C., grimly states that America’s leader has “privately advised” President Putin that a global war is nearing…and he “may be powerless to stop it”.

Director Bortnikov, it is important to remember, is in some Kremlin circles believed to be the third most powerful person in Russia after President Putin, along with being known as the Federations top counter intelligence commander.

As an agent of the Committee for State Security (KGB) since 1975, Director Bortnikov, over the past 40 years, ascended through the ranks of Russian intelligence and from 2004-2008 was head of the FSB’s Economic Security Service and a Deputy Director of FSB, after which he became the Director on 12 May 2008.

Reports of Director Bortnikov's travels to meet President Obama a few weeks ago, it is interesting to note, did not emerge until the FSB published a press release announcing he was already in the United States. The release specifically mentioned that Director Bortnikov had been invited by the US State Department and the White House.

Though Director Bortnikov cannot travel to EU countries or Canada because he is on their sanctions list, it is interesting to note, he is notably absent from the US list and “officially” he was in the United States for two days to attend the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.

Director Bortnikov’s private White House visit with President Obama a few weeks ago, it should be further noted, follows a similar meeting held this past May between America’s leader and SCRF Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (known as the second most powerful person in Russia), who, likewise, has been a longtime KGB-FSB spy...

MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - More than 45,000 Russian troops as well as war planes and submarines started military exercises across much of the country on Monday in one of the Kremlin's biggest shows of force since its ties with the West plunged to Cold War-lows.

President Vladimir Putin called the Navy's Northern Fleet to full combat readiness in exercises in Russia's Arctic North apparently aimed at dwarfing military drills in neighbouring Norway, a NATO member.

"New challenges and threats to military security require the armed forces to further boost their military capabilities. Special attention must be paid to newly created strategic formations in the north," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, quoted by RIA news agency.

Shoigu said the order came from Putin, who has promised to spend more than 21 trillion roubles ($340 billion) by the end of the decade to overhaul Russia's fighting forces.

Putin made his first public appearance since March 5 on Monday, an absence from view that had fuelled feverish speculation over his health as well as his grip on power. He was meeting Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev at the Constantine Palace outside Russia's second city of St. Petersburg.

Norway is currently holding its "Joint Viking" drills involving 5,000 troops in Finnmark county, which borders Russia in the resource-rich Arctic circle where both countries are vying for influence.

Tensions between Russia and Europe worsened last year, leading eight northern European nations to promise to boost cooperation to counter an increase in Moscow's military activity.

NATO made new allegations last week that Russia was arming separatists in east Ukraine, where more than 6,000 people have been killed in nearly a year of fighting.

The West and Kiev accuse Russia of supplying arms and soldiers to support the pro-Russian separatists. Moscow denies the claims.

NATO says it counted more than 100 intercepts of Russian planes into members' airspace last year, three times more than in 2013. The intercepts have forced civilian planes to change their courses and Britain scrambled Typhoon interceptor planes after two long-range bombers flew over the English Channel.

Norway said its military drills had been planned before the Ukraine crisis.

"However, the current security situation in Europe shows that the exercise is more relevant than ever," Lieutenant General Haga Lunde said in a statement.

The Russian exercises are due to last for much of the week during which Russia will celebrate its annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, carried out with the help of special forces.

Other drills involved 5,000 troops in Russia's eastern military district, while another exercise included another 500 troops from Russia's troubled North Caucasus region of Chechnya, the site of two separatist wars, wires reported.

Event into space in United Kingdom on Monday, 16 March, 2015 at 08:44 UTC.A major search operation was launched after red distress flares were reported off the west coast of Cumbria. Concerned members of the public reported someone in trouble at about 9.20pm last night. Maryport Coastguard Rescue Team was dispatched to the area, between Workington and the Isle of Whithorn, where members took up various observation points while Workington lifeboat was dispatched to carry out a search. A spokesman for the coastguard said: "After a thorough search of the area and enquiries made - as well as receiving more reports from other parts of the country reporting lights in the sky - it was decided that the sighting was probably a meteorite." The team and lifeboat were stood down and, as the coastguard was leaving the area, the team was flagged down by a security guard from one of the local factories reporting a bright object moving across the sky.

---Event into space in France on Monday, 16 March, 2015 at 08:45 UTC.A huge meteorite lit up the night in eastern France on Sunday as well as other parts of Europe. It was captured on amateur video footage. The meteorite which was seen in the skies above the regions of Alsace and Lorraine near the German border was also visible from parts of Switzerland and Austria. The ball of fire passed over Europe at around 9pm on Sunday night and was largely visible to the naked eye. Witnesses told Swiss newspaper Le Matin that they saw a "flash, like a lightning bolt" and others reported hearing a dull thunder accompanying the meteorite as it passed through the sky. "The information we received clearly indicates that it was a meteorite," said Markus Griesser from the Eschenberg Observatory in Switzerland. The specialist says it is too early to determine where the meteorite may have crashed. The ball of fire was caught on camera in this amateur video footage shot in Austria.

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Meteorite Falls in Central BulgariaA meteorite has landed in the Sredna Gora mountain near the town of Sopot, in Central Bulgaria.Locals reported seeing bright lights just before 19:00 EET (17:00 GMT) followed by rumbles and smoke, according to Novinite's Bulgarian-language website.Some witnesses claim the fireball looked "the size of a washing machine" while making its way downwards.But Sopot Mayor Veselin Lichev told private national channel TV7 that "it was a small piece of a rock... It fell somewhere in Sredna Gora and we will not be able to find it."Lichev ruled out that it could set anything ablaze, since there have been no reports of a fire in the past 15 hours. -http://www.novinite.com/articles/167235/Meteorite%20Falls%20in%20Central%20Bulgaria

"Sources in Moscow confirmed the information about the death of the chief guardian of Russian President Vladimir Putin General Viktor Zolotov. Reported journalist Alex Mochanov, news reports "Press Ukraine". "The information about the death of the chief guard guarded main contact person my sources in Moscow confirmed", - said TV presenter. As you know, the last few days of the communication chief of Interior Ministry troops of Colonel-General Viktor Zolotov was absent. In this regard, the rumors of his death."

-Diauehi (13th century BC), -Colchis (8th century BC), -Sper (7th century BC) -Iberia (6th century BC). & 4th century BC, a unified kingdom of Georgia – an early example of advanced state organization under one king and an aristocratic hierarchy – was established.

-Sargon II (722–705 BC) of the Assyrian empire conquered the Georgian state of Tabal and all of the Hittite kingdoms of the Taurus Mountains.

-In Greek mythology, Colchis was the location of the Golden Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts in Apollonius Rhodius' epic tale Argonautica.Known to its natives as Egrisi or Lazica, Colchis was also the battlefield of the Lazic War fought between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Persia.

-After the Roman Empire completed its conquest of the Caucasus region in 66 BC, the Georgian kingdoms were Roman client states and allies for nearly 400 years. In 337 AD King Mirian III declared Christianity as the state religion, giving a great stimulus to the development of literature, arts, and ultimately playing a key role in the formation of the unified Georgian nation. King Mirian III's acceptance of Christianity effectively tied the kingdom to the neighboring Eastern Roman Empire, which exerted a strong influence on Georgia for nearly a millennium, determining much of its present cultural identity.

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its population is almost 5 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

During the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century. A unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 11th–12th centuries. Thereafter the area was dominated by various large empires, including the Safavids, Afsharids, and Qajar Persians. In the late 18th century, the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti forged an alliance with the Russian Empire, and the area was annexed by Russia in 1801. After a brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia was occupied by Soviet Russia in 1921, becoming part of the Soviet Union as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. After independence in 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil unrest and economic crisis for most of the 1990s. This lasted until the Rose Revolution of 2003, after which the new government introduced democratic and economic reforms.

Georgia is a member of the Council of Europe and the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development. It contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a major part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgia's sovereign territory under Russian military occupation.

(7March)Scientists in northern Russia have discovered four new giant craters of an unknown origin in the Yamal Peninsula. Moreover, the appearance of one of the craters was preceded by a bright flash of light, which was witnessed by some of the local inhabitants.

Professor Bogoyavlensky has studied the craters with the help of satellite imagery, which allowed him to compare past images of the area with the present ones. He believes that further investigation is necessary because the phenomenon is more widespread than previously thought. The expert warns that the appearance of these giant formations may be potentially dangerous for the local population since the craters have a tendency to appear closer and closer to inhabited areas. At the same time, two of the newly-found craters have turned into lakes and are now filled with water.